


We Have Forever

by Golbez



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Drabble, Future Fic, Grandchildren, Immortality, M/M, Older Characters, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 18:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11537952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golbez/pseuds/Golbez
Summary: Sphintus and Titus, fifty years later — one's changed, one hasn't.





	We Have Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I wrote this in July of 2015 and then never posted it...
> 
> Please note I'm very much not caught up with Magi! So I have no idea if this conflicts with anything that happens in chapters that came out after I wrote it. That said, I still like it and think it's a cute little fic, so here we are.

Sphintus laughs and picks up another child, setting her on his back with another already clinging to him. The two children giggle and hold on to him as he charges about this way and that, the grass tickling his legs as he runs.

Forty years ago, he could have done this for hours. Now, he has only minutes before he has to stop and set the children down again. They pout and bounce on their feet, raising their arms to him to be carried again, but he simply pats them on their heads and leans in to tickle them with his beard. They scatter and flee from him, before suddenly shrieking eagerly into the cool autumn breeze when they find some new distraction he isn't privy to.

He affords a smile as he watches them run, then he turns and strides over to Titus sitting on the mat nearby. The magi has his face firmly planted deep in an open scroll, the small quirk of his lips the only sign of his discontent. Kukulcan the Third rests coiled up near him, soaking in the warmth of the sun.

"You should come play with them too," says Sphintus aloud.

Titus's shoulders tense, and his grip visibly tightens on the scroll. 

"In a moment," he says, then his muscles relax and his gaze starts moving over the scroll gain. Sphintus sighs and shakes his head. Fifty years after his establishment as a magi and the man still never knows how to accommodate breaks in his schedule.

He should be angry. They'd arranged for this time off weeks ago, although babysitting their grandchildren hadn't been part of the plan until Marga arrived that morning with them. Of all the bad habits that she'd picked up from Titus, it had to be overworking herself.

He should be angry that Titus brought work with him once again, but as her magi, Titus loves Reim above all else. Titus belongs to all of Reim for most hours in a day, and it's only in the stolen hours and kisses and outings like this and the privacy of home that he belongs with Sphintus.

That Titus belongs to Reim first doesn't stop the Heliohaptian from scurrying over to stand behind him. A glance over the other man's shoulder at the scroll tells him it's about the slums of Reim, an ever-present stain on the perfect Reim they'd dreamed together about.

Sphintus hasn't thought about the politics that go into running Reim in a long while, not since he stepped out of the senate's halls five years ago.

"Sphin...!" Titus cries out when he wraps his arms around the magi, intentionally pressing close and forcing the smaller man's gaze away from the scroll.

"That can wait." Sphintus pulls back, just enough for Titus to sit up straight and rub his head and turn around to glare at him. He returns the glare with a grin, as he's done hundreds of thousands of times. "Your grandchildren are getting older by the second."

Titus blinks in that decidedly _Titus_ way, and in that brief moment Sphintus finds himself examining the man's face, from the gentle slope of his cheeks to light furrow of his brow. He looks just as he did thirty years ago. Sphintus's smile widens, and he shifts closer on the mat and leans in and plants a kiss on Titus's cheek. When he pulls away, Titus is smiling as well. The man reaches over and places a hand over his.

"You really aren't going to shave that off, are you?" he asks, reaching up to rub his own chin with his free hand.

"Took me twenty-five years to get it right," answers Sphintus, patting Titus's hand, "I'm not getting rid of if that easily."

Titus laughs, then he's withdrawing his hand and rolling up the scroll and setting it aside. He picks himself up off the mat easily enough, golden hair rippling like sunlight on water as it falls to its full length over his white robes.

"You never change," says Titus.

 _Looked in a mirror recently?_ The words almost slip from his tongue but he holds back. He doesn't trust himself to not let bitterness into his tone if he were to joke about how Titus gets to keep his youth, gets to see the world for much, much longer, and Sphintus doesn't want Titus to believe he's discontent with his age and his life, because he isn't.

Well, maybe he does wish he could see more of the world with Titus, but neither of them need that bitterness in their lives, not when they know more than anyone what such bitterness leads to. Not when laughter and joy comprise Sphintus's memories more than anything else.

Not when the world is so swiftly changing. Not when the gap between the science that rules Reim and the magic that rules the world seems to grow smaller everyday. Not when it just seemed like yesterday that he and Aladdin and Titus where racing through the streets of Magnostadt - but that _wasn't_ yesterday, that was fifty years ago.

And fifty years is plenty of time to think.

"I change just enough to be able to coordinate with a pair of kids to do this," he replies, a grin forcing its way onto his face. Titus blinks, then he hears the battle cry, and he has only a moment to gasp before a pair of children come charging out of nowhere at him.

Sphintus laughs as Titus goes down in a flurry of hair and small hands and giggling children.

Some things really didn't change, after all.


End file.
